Disabled driver's fine fury

A DISABLED driver received a £35 parking fine - despite leaving his car in a disabled spot and showing his blue badge. Terence Hodson has been a disabled badge holder for 10 years and has never been in trouble with traffic wardens before.

A DISABLED driver received a £35 parking fine - despite leaving his car in a disabled spot and showing his blue badge.

Terence Hodson has been a disabled badge holder for 10 years and has never been in trouble with traffic wardens before.

But Oldham council fined him for failing to display the correct time he left the car in the bay in New Radcliffe Street car park.

Mr Hodson, 70, from Higher Blackley, said the ticket was issued just moments after he left the car to go into Oldham town centre.

He had dropped his wife, Margaret 64 - who has had a disabled badge since 1980 - at her sister's house.

Oldham now says it will write-off the penalty, after being contacted by the M.E.N.

Mr Hodson, a retired decorator who suffers from arthritis, said: "I did exactly as we have done for years. It is not always clear whether you have to set the clock on your permit - in other off-street car parks and at supermarkets, for example, they do not tend to enforce it.

"I thought the same applied here and it felt very unfair to come back and find a ticket. I looked at the time it was issued and I must have only just walked away."

Off-street car parks are governed by their own rules as set by the owners of the land, rather than the government blue badge scheme.

A council spokesman said: "To date we have not been contacted by the owner of the vehicle.

"Once he provides evidence in writing that he is a legitimate holder of a disabled parking permit, the fine will be written-off."